Sunday, February 22, 2015

A very good explanation by Graeme Wood about the Outlook and thinking of the ISIS. It's a bit long for this generation, but well worth the read. Sobering to think my family would be sold in slavery by these people and my wife and I put to death.

In October, Dabiq, the magazine of the Islamic State, published “The Revival of Slavery Before the Hour,” an article that took up the question of whether Yazidis (the members of an ancient Kurdish sect that borrows elements of Islam, and had come under attack from Islamic State forces in northern Iraq) are lapsed Muslims, and therefore marked for death, or merely pagans and therefore fair game for enslavement. A study group of Islamic State scholars had convened, on government orders, to resolve this issue. If they are pagans, the article’s anonymous author wrote,

Yazidi women and children [are to be] divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations [in northern Iraq] … Enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Koran and the narrations of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam.

Friday, January 30, 2015

The CPC is currently pushing the "Common Sense Firearms Licencing Act" The opposition is aghast, "the streets will run with blood" etc, etc. Beyond the rhetoric (from all sides) the reality is that this bill will do little and may even be harmful to gun owners down the line. The NFA has done a good review of the Act. The CSSA has done as well.

Some key points is that it eliminates the Authorization To Transport (ATT) and rolls it into the licence. This actually reduces the paperwork burden on the RCMP and reduces the papaerwork for gun owners, but very little real benefit and several pitfalls may open up.

It requires that people actually attend training rather than challenge exams, this seem fair on the first glance till you realize that many place don't have anyone to train or run courses and that the Chief Firearm Officers (CFO) limit the number of trainers. This could put people wishing to own guns legally without any options. Won't bother the people who own illegal guns though.

One of the major issues gun owners have faced is arbitrator rules added on by the CFO without any recourse by the gun owner, you are basically completely at their mercy and several have little of it and fair bit "power tripping" issues.

In short this is mainly fluff in hopes to pander to a very active voting bloc of gun owners. The Liberals and NDP have been crying about the world ending, but have missed a masterful opportunity to repair relations with gun owners. the Liberals could have fixed C-42 and offered up better ideas while not giving up much more. But they are to busy pandering to their own base. The most painful part is the display of outright ignorance by the Libs and NDP about how the Firearm Act works and does not work. Plus ignoring peer reviewed studies showing the whole exercise of this type of control is basically useless.

At the end of the day both NFA and CSSA will support this, not because it's good law, but because the CPC is the party of no better choice. We really should run an ad in Craigslist saying: "3 million single issue voters looking a for a serious and respectful relation with a political party

I should add this is likely the biggest benefit to the average gun owner, but really a reflection of the cuts done to the CFO/CFC limiting their ability to d their legislated duties.

Create a six-month grace period at the end of the five-year licence period to stop people from immediately becoming criminalized for paperwork delays around license renewals;

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Earlier this year, President Obama signed a set of executive orders targeting gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. Among them was an edict commanding the CDC to do a comprehensive survey of studies regarding guns and gun violence in the United States. Clearly, once the CDC produced the hard evidence that the US was a violent nation of wild-west shootouts, the American people would be eager to approve and fund future research while embracing strict gun control legislation.

At least that was the plan. The study, which was compiled by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council under the CDC's direction, was recently completed and released. The anti-gun crowd has been awfully quiet about it. Could it be that it didn't support their bogus hypothesis?

In a word, Yes. The CDC's numbers basically back every pro-gun rights argument made over the course of the last year.

First and foremost, the majority of annual gun-related deaths are due to suicide, not crime.

The study finds that "Between the years 2000-2010 firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearms related violence in the United States.”

snip

The CDC report finds that "Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence." In fact, while exact statistics are hard to come by, the report indicates that "Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008."

So, there's as much as a 10 to 1 ratio of defensive firearm use vs. offensive use, though admittedly the 3 million figure is probably a bit high.

Monday, October 15, 2012

While reflecting on this question (pun intended) i realized it's a great question from anyone much less a 7 year old, who I encourage to be curious about her surroundings. Sound, light, radio waves and waves on water all reflect and we can see/hear sea waves and sound waves reflect so we are comfortable in believing they do. We know radio waves reflect because of RADAR, not to mention sneaky ham radio types that bounce their signals off the moon to extend their range. but back to the question, does wind reflect?

Wind is; A current of air, especially a natural one that moves along or parallel to the ground, moving from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.

From my own personal experience I can't say wind "reflects" . This definitionThe change in direction of a wave, such as a light or sound wave, away from a boundary the wave encounters. Reflected waves remain in their original medium rather than entering the medium they encounter. According to the law of reflection, the angle of reflection of a reflected wave is equal to its angle of incidence Captures what happens. I have seen wind deflected and slowed by building up around a wing or a wall, but I can't say that it is 'reflected" I suppose the closest it comes is a microburst where the air currents hit the ground and then move up. But they are doing so because of the effect of other sources, such as very localized high pressure areas or lows and because it's being pushed against other air which forces it to take the path of least resistance.

All of this is my best guess from a brain floating in snot and being sick for a week. So if you disagree, please post why I am wrong, because I would not be surprised if i missed something.

China has unofficially unveiled another stealth fighter. This aircraft, externally resembling the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor, could be the F-60, an export version of a AVIC Shenyang Aircraft Corporation developed ’fourth generation’ fighter. By painting the marking ’31001′, Shenyang may be hinting about the design’s goal aspiring to be an alternative for the Chengdu J-20, toward a future selection by People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). Alternatively, the J-31/F60 could be positioned for a future option for the People’s republic Army Navy (PLAN), for its future aircraft carrier force. In the near future, PLAN is to use the Russian Su-33 and its domestically designed Su-33 copycat dubbed J-15, also built by Shenyang. Rest of article at Defense updateThis was the first one

Monday, August 6, 2012

Curiosity the largest rover so far to land on Mars has landed safely. I am always amazed at the people behind this type of work amazes me. You spend close to a decade to prepare for a moment where everything could go wrong and all your hard work is for nothing. The joy and relief must be absolutely intense. Considering the above and beyond success of the other rovers, I have no doubt that this project will produce some amazing science.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

The guar bean grown in the northern India state of Rajasthan is now a key element in the chemical cocktail used to frack wells, the technology that has prompted the oil and gas boom sweeping across North America and is set to spur a worldwide boost in oil and gas recovery. Read the rest at Oil Price.com

The good news for the farmer (hopefully and not all the middlemen) is the price of the guar bean has gone up, $4 to $30 per Kilo, expect your Ice cream habit to cost more soon!